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More sex and violence: Playfight @sohotheatre

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The funny thing about three girls growing up under a tree is that you never quite know when they're being serious or just messing about. One time, they might be talking about giving blow jobs on a tennis court at school and another, they might be yearning for a connection that they can't quite explain. That's what happens in Playfight, an Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2024 hit currently showing at Soho Theatre .  Writer Julia Grogan doesn't give us much time to dwell on the lives of these three young teenage girls. One minute, they're fifteen and giggling, and then the next thing, they're off getting married or going to University. But underneath all the smutty talk, humour, and quick scene changes, there is a darker underbelly about relationships, power, and consent. It's about finding your way in a complex world that can dehumanise and degrade you. But as things move so quickly, you could blink and miss it. This is too bad as the performances capturing this co...

Last chance: Fleabag @sohotheatre

Phoebe Waller-Bridge's Fleabag has had a return run at the Soho Theatre for the past few weeks. It is a raw uncompromising monologue about a young woman uncertain about her place in life and wondering whether being sex obsessed and masturbating late at night to pornography on the internet is all it is cracked up to be.

A hit at last year's Edinburgh Fringe, and a success at the Soho Theatre last September, this time around the production seems a bit slicker, and Waller-Bridge's performance has evolved to become a bit looser making the most of the comic and tragic potential of the material. It's in the main theatre this time however so it misses some of the intimacy from a smaller space. But it still delivers an emotional impact tackling subject matter that you don't normally see discussed amongst friends, let alone put up on stage.

Fleabag concludes today at 5pm at the Soho Theatre. If you missed it this time, hopefully it will be back again in the future. If Waller-Bridge isn't free, I would settle for a series of special guest Fleabags...





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